Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1887-01-07

the passion for perfection. Anyone can
collect stamps-little boys and girls Of
zen do. But there comes point at which
foreign stamps and old stamps grow rare,
and more rare, and finally next to inn
possible to procure. Here it is that the
heart of mature collector begins to
beat. He is determined to have per-
feet collection. Nothing shall escape
him in the way of printed franks on let
tiers. Now nIneteen-twentieths of his as
sortment he can buy in the gross, without
trouble or great expense. But the last
twentieth demands personal care and at
tention, and the hunting up of old family
letters, and the haunting of great dealers
shops. and peeping through dirty win
dows in shady lines and alleys. As he
gets nearer and nearer a complete collect
on the spool grows more and more shy,
the excitement faster and more furious,
till finally the amateur would sell an
estate for s.uare inch of paper, and
turn large England to little stamp if
he had the opportunity. The fury of the
pastime is caused by the presence of
definite limits. There is only certain
known number of stamps in the world.
This limit makes perfection possible"
1t is not as if you were collecting really
beautiful things like Tanagra terra-cot-
tas, or really rare and quaint and myster-
ious things like aggery beads. Though
Tanagra terra-cottas and aggery beads.
and fine examples of Moorish luster, or
of ancient Nankin, or of gold coins of
the Roman empire, are all rare, yet there
is no definite limit to their number
More may turn up any day when the
pickax breaks into new Tanagra ceme
terry, when fallen palm in Ashanti prings
up aggery beads clinging to its earthly
roots, when pot of coins is found by
some old Roman way, and so forth. To
be sure perfection may be obtained in
com collecting, when man has speci
mems of all known sorts, bat even then
he will pine for better specimens, for the
best specimens. In the other branches
of the sport we have mentioned the col
lector may be eager, of course. for good
things, but he can never know the passion
of the stampomaniae who has ali sorts
but three, and finds these within his
reach.
Perfection is within step of such
man, and that step we fear he will take.
even If 1t involves ever so many breach
es of the decalogue. In one of this
months magazines, in story called ''Mr.
Pierrepoint's Repentance" Mr.. Grant
Allen tells the tale of a coin collectors
infamy, and that coin collector a clergy
man and fellow of his college. A pope is
said to have stolen a rare book from
painter, and it is certain that enthusiast
tic collectors are apt to have "their moral
tone lowered some," as the American
gentleman said about the lady whom he
had wooed with int antions less thar. hon
orable.
good example of the tolls of the
collector in pursuit of perfection is given
by NJ. Henri Beraldi in his very amusing
catalogue of NJ. Pallets library. This
book, by the way, is itself scarce, and the
bibliomaniac will be rather lucky if he
meets with it. M. Beraldi describes NJ
Pallets copy of "Dorat's Fables" pub
lished in 1878, with illustrations by
Marillier. Nobody perhaps ever reads
Dorat now, but his book came out in the
very palmiest days of the art of illustra-
ton in France. There were no photo
gravures then, nor hideous, scratchy, and
.eamy processes" such as almost make
one despair of progress and of the fu-
ture of humanity. The people that takes
to processes" is lost! The illustration
of the Fables were duly engraved in
copper. There were ninety -nine Wig
nettes, and as many tail pieces. The
photographed history of the book is in
structive, either to young collectors or to
the common herd, not to speak impolite-
ly-the persons who do not understand
what collectors want.
The GABLES were originally publishes
on three different sorts of paper, Dutch
paper at ~ francs, French paper at 80
francs, and on small paper" at "a francs.
In 1858 the original drawings were
bought by one of the Rothschilds for
about $50; they would now, probably be
worth at least $1,000. The ordinary
copies of the book bring about &c, the
large paper copies about $50, and a copy
in old morocco can hardly be estimated
you may pay anything for it, as copy
in old calf has sold for $240.
Such is the natural history of a book
pretty valueless as literature, the Fables
of Dorat. In the early edition of "Bru-
nets Manual" published in 1921, the
large paper copies of the work, with the
eugravings in the earliest state, are pric-
ed at from Is to Is francs. These Wig
uettes had gone out of fashion; they have
come in again with vengeance. The
high prices $50 sr el0o. are merely the
beginning of what the great collectors
are ready to pay and to do and to suffer
in the cause of Dorat. In NJ. Cohens
catalogue of all these old illustrated books
special mention is made of NJ. Pallets
copy of the gables" 1t is "a superb
example, with all the engravings printed
separately"
But M. Pallet describes this specimen
far more lovingly. All the designs are
separately printed, and, oh, joy! all have
all their margins uncut. The book
sis all that man can dream of" in the
way of perfection. Cuzin did the bind
ing, in yellow morocco, fooled with roses
and butterflies.
Reader" cries NJ. Beraldi, '.if you are
not collector You can not imagine the
difficulty of getting such copy. 1t is
the thirteenth labor of Hercules" First
you buy your text. then you must have
the separately printed feurors. These
can only be picked up here and there in
sales and stalls. Perhaps you purchase
half of them in ole lucky investment.
With no great difficulty you secure anoth
er lot. Then begins the hunt-you buy
at the price of bank notes,
merely for the sake of two or three out of
the mass. You offer to barter twenty
five for one you havs not got. Then you
have all but three, which you demand
from the universe at large; then all but
two; then all but one. What you pay for
that one you keep profound secret. lest
your family should have you put nnder
control. Even then you are not safe, for
some of your sngravings have false mar
gins, and must be changed for entire ex
ample.. Such are the joys of the collec-
tor. for shadows We are. and engravings
q .outes marges We pursue.